The present invention relates to attenuators such as shock absorbers or energy management systems for absorbing or reducing shock or vibration forces produced by various devices, including vehicles, guns, heavy machinery, prosthetic devices, and electronic equipment.
A leg prosthesis, for example, is attached to the wearer""s remaining limb, and a shock absorber or damping device is necessary for the wearer""s comfort. Vehicles such as automobiles, bicycles, motor bikes and the like have shock absorbers or vibration damping mechanisms in their suspension system for a smoother ride. Guns also have recoil attenuators in order to reduce and/or modify the recoil energy on firing the gun. A firearm recoil attenuator is described in my U.S. Pat. No. 6,227,098. Most shock absorbing devices or energy attenuators use springs or resilient devices, or hydraulic means, to absorb the energy of an impact or the like.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved attenuator apparatus.
According to the present invention, an attenuator apparatus is provided which comprises a housing having a first chamber, a bellows member of elastomeric material mounted in the first chamber and having a second chamber filled with non-compressible fluid, the bellows member having a first end facing away from the first chamber, and a piston mounted in the housing at the first end of the bellows member for acting on the bellows member in a first direction in response to a force applied to the piston so as to expand the bellows member in the first chamber and cushion the force, whereby the bellows member returns to its original configuration and biases the piston back in a second direction opposite to the first direction on removal of the force.
The housing may be cylindrical and designed for mounting inside the tubular structure of a leg prosthesis, for example, adjacent a prosthetic knee joint. Alternatively, the apparatus may be incorporated in a recoil mechanism of a firearm, or in a heavy machine such as a press in order to absorb impact energy. There are many possible applications of this apparatus as an energy management device in a wide range of industrial and consumer products.